The Court of Appeal in Lagos on Tuesday affirmed the judgment of a Federal High Court, Lagos, which sentenced two employees of the firm producing the killer baby teething mixture,My Pikin, to seven years imprisonment each for the sale of the medicine.

In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Dauda Bage, the appellate court affirmed the seven years sentence by the trial court, but reversed the order of winding up and forfeiture made by the court.

The convicts, Adeyemo Abiodun and Ebele Eromosele, both employees of Barewa Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, had appealed against the judgment of Justice Okechukwu Okeke (now retired) delivered on May 17.

Okeke had ruled that Barewa Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, producer of the killer mixture be forfeited to the Federal Government.

Okeke had only convicted the two persons and the company for just the sale of the medicine, but that he could not convict them for the manufacturing and the adulteration of the drug because the prosecution was unable to adduce sufficient evidence to back the allegations.

The National Agency for Food, Drugs, Administration and Control, which prosecuted the convicts at the trial court, had alleged thatMy Pikincaused the death of over 80 children in the country.

Bage held that by the provisions of sections 36 of the Constitution and 138 (1) of the Evidence Act, the burden of proof in a criminal trial was proof beyond reasonable doubt

He held that what was required of the prosecution in such a criminal matter was scientific evidence, that is, proving that the substance recovered was tested scientifically and found to be hazardous.

The judge held that the prosecution had sufficiently discharged the burden of proof by the provision of a Certificate of Scientific Evaluation from its laboratory, which clearly showed that the recovered products contained a toxic substance.

“The respondents in their brief stated that the appellants supplied batch 02008 of the teething syrup to Roka Pharmacy, which after recovery and scientific evaluation, was shown to contain a contaminant called dyethylene glycol,” Bage held.

http://www.punchng.com/news/appeal-court-affirms-conviction-of-my-pikin-producers-2/